Tabitha screamed and ran towards Carlos. She tried to hold him back. "Carlos! Carlos, what's this about? Listen to me, son. Calm down."
Carlos gave his mother a cold look and asked, "How could you do this to my wife?" He gritted his teeth in anger and added, "Debbie has always respected you. Is this what she deserved from my parents?"
James still didn't think he did anything wrong. "I never accepted her as my daughter-in-law. I won't allow her to give birth to your child."
"So you told the servants to put crushed birth control pills in her food?" asked Carlos, grinding his teeth to suppress his growing anger. His eyes blazed and seemed to stare deep into James' black rotting soul.
James attempted to wrench free, but compared to his son, he was too weak. Pretending to be composed, he said, "They were just birth control pills, not poison! Did you have to fly all the way from Y City for this?"
'Just birth control pills?' Within Carlos' heart, his father's image sank to a new low. "Yes, they were poison. You've been feeding her cumulative poison!"
Saying that, he swung a second fist towards James' face.
Only Tabitha and James were home at that moment. There was no time for Tabitha to rush downstairs to ask the servants for help. She had to stand in front of James to stop Carlos from hitting him again. "This family was never happy while she was here. And she even tried to kill Megan in Y City. Why are you still protecting her? Can't you see how vicious she is? Divorce her already."
Carlos closed his eyes to hide the misery he felt from those words. He let go of James and straightened his own clothes.
Regaining his composure, he told his parents, "From today, I will not enter this house anymore, unless Grandpa wakes up or you accept Debbie as a member of this family."
Tabitha panicked. There was no sign of Douglas waking up yet. Did this mean that Carlos would never come back if his grandpa didn't wake up? No! Tabitha couldn't accept it. "Carlos, listen to me…"
Carlos glanced coldly at the weeping woman and said, "There's nothing more to say here. If my wife has a baby some day, our child will have nothing to do with any of you."
He turned to leave. Tabitha shouted desperately, "Carlos, are you willing to turn your family and friends against you for that woman?"
Carlos said, "Just my family. Unlike you, none of my friends did anything heartless to Debbie even when they found out that she had pushed Megan into the river." Debbie had had to bear all the mistreatment and insults from Valerie and James just because she had married Carlos. Now, they had even set her up to take birth control pills without her knowledge. She had suffered too much for him.
"She is a murderer! Why are you still protecting her?" Tabitha yelled at her son's cold back, heartbroken.
Carlos turned around and looked his mother in the eye. "Debbie is not a murderer. We all know what kind of person Megan is. We just choose to ignore some things about her out of gratitude towards her parents. Debbie fell into the river because of what Megan told her on the phone. She only pushed Megan into the river for revenge. And she has been merciful in the act. Besides, Megan didn't die." That only served to prove that however angry Debbie had been at the time, she had never intended to take Megan's life.
"Let me warn you one last time, Father. If you dare hurt my wife again, I will make sure you suffer."
Without waiting for his parents' response, he left the study.
There was a loud bang from the room. As soon as he walked out of the study, an ashtray was smashed against the door.
Then James was heard roaring, "Bastard! This is what I get for keeping him! If I had known that he would be so ungrateful, I would have…"
Carlos couldn't hear the rest of his words clearly, nor did he want to. Fists clenched, he left the house.
Back in Y City, it was the seventh day that Carlos had been away from the manor. Debbie sat in the music studio and read the lyrics which she had revised a hundred times.
"In the dim street lights, in each other's arms, we expressed our feelings.
Snowflakes swirled around us, and fell on our hair.
Would this moment last forever?
You kissed my hair and told me that you love me."
That was all she had written.
'Should I also write down what Carlos said to me?' she wondered. Her phone rang, breaking her thoughts.
It was Kasie.
"Debbie, bad news! Guess what I saw just now!"
Debbie was confused. "What is it?"
"I came to Orchid Private Club to find Emmett. And I saw your husband, Mr. Lu, Damon, and Wesley walk into a booth. They were not alone. Each of them had a woman alongside them. Megan was with your husband.
Bam! Debbie slammed the pen on the table. "Did you see it for yourself?"
"Yes! I checked with Emmett too. He gave me the room number. Are you coming?" Kasie knew that Carlos had crossed the line. He was fooling around with another woman while her friend had been staying at the manor all alone for seven days.
Debbie's friend would have thought that Carlos had forgotten about her if Emmett hadn't gone to the manor to get Debbie's ID card for her overseas study papers.
'Should I go?' Debbie asked herself. After giving it some consideration, she said, "I'm not coming. He's in Room 888, isn't he?" That was his exclusive booth.
"Right. What are you going to do about it? I'll go with you, if you like."
"No. Let him be. I have to go."
Debbie hung up and immediately called someone else with gritted teeth.
In Orchid Private Club
After entering the exclusive booth, the four men sat down around the automatic mahjong table, with their women sitting next to them.
Beside Carlos was Megan. Colleen looked at him with a raised brow. "Mr. Huo, where is my good friend, Debbie?" This was supposed to be a get-together of Carlos and his closest friends. However, instead of Debbie, he brought Megan along. Colleen was pissed.
Carlos lit a cigarette and took a drag. After exhaling the smoke, he said, "She's home."
Colleen knew that Carlos and Debbie had a huge fight after Debbie had pushed Megan into the river. Things were complicated between the couple right now. So, Colleen didn't feel the need to pretend to be cordial with Megan anymore. "Mr. Huo, I have to say, you are in the wrong here. This is an occasion for the people closest to you. Why didn't you bring Debbie? You should learn from Wesley. He brought his girlfriend. As for Damon, he gets a free pass. He has always been a Playboy. Even when his wife is about to give birth to their baby, he is here messing around instead of taking care of her at home. He has made his own bed and he will have to lie in it."
Damon snorted and replied defensively, "Don't get me wrong now. Your man said that we were having a get-together, so my wife gave me permission to have some fun. Since they all had a woman with them, how could I come alone?"
